


Anatomy Lesson

by DollyPop



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teachers, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Romantic Fluff, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 18:23:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6968848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DollyPop/pseuds/DollyPop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What? Do you need help with your biology homework?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anatomy Lesson

“Nice asymptote,” a raspy voice called out, and she just about fell off her chair at the sound of it. All of her students had already left, wishing her a good day as they filed out of her Advanced Placement Calculus Course. That left her, in her five inch heels, to try to erase the board after the tallest kid in the class went up to show their work and solve the problem. She’d only sighed and hopped onto a provided rolling chair, almost losing her balance before she steadied and started to erase.

So much for steadied.

She teetered, dropping the eraser and holding on to the top of the chalkboard. “What?” she asked, her singular eye widening before she tried to whirl around, half the word cutting off in her mind. As she turned, she found that she became all too wobbly, and she nearly fell off the chair. For a brief moment, she felt the calloused touch of a warm palm on her arm before she found her balance once more. Their rough voice came out amused.

“The asymptote. It’s very clear.”

When she turned to look at who it was, the smart ass, her first thought was that they were ridiculously tall. Even standing atop a chair, they barely had to look up at her. She almost huffed at the fact that she was so short, but anyone on a stool so high would tower over most normal-heighted people. The man had to be at least six foot seven, she swears.

The second thought was simply a loud squeal. She knew that face.

“Franken?” Her eyebrows went up, mouth popping open. 

He didn’t reply, only smirking a little wider, the facial scar he got in a car accident when he was 22 twisting around. The bastard, she doesn’t see him in four years and that’s how he decided to greet her? His expression turned surprised when Marie only threw her arms around his neck, somehow managing to launch the chair she was standing on right into the wall as she hugged him. “What the hell? You didn’t tell me you were working _here_!”

His hands immediately went to her waist, holding her up. It would be less than a two foot drop, especially since she was in her heels, if he didn’t catch her, but he doubts she’d take it too well if he simply let her slip. He awkwardly pat at her sides, stooping and hunching over so he could set her back onto the ground.

“You didn’t ask,” he replied, his voice coming out strained from how hard she was hugging him. Even though she was firmly on solid ground and no longer throwing her feet in the air as she used him as her own personal balance beam, she didn’t let go.

“Well, you could have said something when I told you I was hired!”

“Sorry,” he said, but they both knew he really wasn’t. Seeing her so shocked and then so genuinely delighted was well worth it. She scoffed, finally loosening her hold.

“No you aren’t.”

“No, I’m not,” he agreed, suddenly realizing that his smirk had morphed into a genuine smile.

He’d missed her. It had been four years since she’d be back in America for longer than a week, having left for Australia to help family she had there. Sometimes, he’d wondered why they didn’t just break off their relationship when she first left.

Other times, like then, he remembered why she’d insisted on trying to make a long distance relationship work. Because it did.

It figured that the skeptic was with an optimist. That was the sort of irony his life really reveled in.

So, when he’d found out, he decided not to inform her that he’d decided to go from the university he’d been teaching at to the local high school he’d once attended. Marie coming to teach at the DWMA started to come into motion just a few weeks before he put in his own application.

It was odd, to be back with everyone. Marie rounded out the fact that an entire handful of the alumni had been accepted back as the teaching staff. Nygus becoming the nurse was a surprise to absolutely no one, considering she’d taken to carrying around a first aid kit with all the fights Sid used to get into. And Spirit? Well, after his marriage fell through with Kamiko and he started shacking up with the principal, known only among the student population as “Lord Death” (kids say the darndest things), getting a job at the school wasn’t too far of a stretch.

He was brought from his musings when he felt Marie flick his nose, having to stand on her very tip-toes and stretch up to reach.

She hadn’t changed a bit.

“That’s for that asymptote joke!”

Ah. No one appreciated good humor, anymore.

He looked particularly amused, noticing how she pouted, her face rosy. No, she hadn’t changed a bit.

“You were standing on my chair,” he informed, trying to keep the laugh out of his voice.

“Your chair?” she asked, turning around and noting how it had toppled when she launched off of it. She bit her lip when she realized. “Whoops?”

He snorted, stooping down to pick up the eraser she’d dropped in surprise and clearing the board with ease, despite the fact that she’d have to get a ladder to do so. She pouted up at him, looking mildly annoyed when he set the eraser onto his desk.

“Yes. My chair. This is the room I teach in.”

So maybe he’d twisted Spirit’s arm just a little bit in assigning the room to ‘Ms. Mjolnir’. He’d get over it.

Stein doesn’t know if his chair would recover, though,

“For Biology, right? ” she asked, looking around and trying to figure out which of his multiple classes the room would be used for, likely not Chemistry by the lack of the Bunsen burners, before she stopped rather suddenly. He raised a brow behind his glasses, waiting for her to make some sort of a comment. “Wait a minute, _you’re_ the ‘Doc’ everyone was talking about?”

He didn’t even bat an eye. He was long accustomed to his reputation as one of the more colorful characters on the staff. The last new hire they’d gotten, he’d used Pavlovion conditioning to get them to take attendance for his classes in exchange for mints.

And they’d told him that Psychology was a useless elective. He begs to differ.

When Marie brought a hand up to her mouth, trying to stifle her giggles, that’s when he blinked blankly at her, chuckling a few times in return.

“You’re terrible,” she said, but with the way her lilting voice rounded out, he could tell she was teasing.

It was nice to have her back. Video calls on Skype and the sporadic visits when she’d managed to come over or when he could find time to take off for a few days were fine and well, but knowing he’d have her back more permanently was more than welcome. He hadn’t wanted to tell her that they would be working together since he’d wanted to see what her genuine reaction would be to the fact. She’d seemed so excited to be back in the same country with him, talking about how she could take the train and they’d be able to spend time together that wasn’t trickling sand in an hourglass.

It felt nice not to have a deadline, not to feel like he was using borrowed, rush time.

He pushed a hand into his pocket, waiting until she calmed her giggles.

“Do you have office hours right now?” he asked, and though he didn’t say anything about them leaving the room, she somehow read his mind anyway, grabbing up her bag and starting to make her way out.

“If I had an office. Who decided to make Spirit of all people the secretary? He can’t organize anything!”

Stein wasn’t going to argue with her, there.

“Why? Do you?”

“Have an office? Of course.”

“No. Have office hours right now?”

“Why? Do you need help with your biology homework?” he asked, and through the deadpan, she could make out the teasing tone. Her face felt warm.

“Stop!” she said, trying to ward off her grin.

“I don’t usually offer private tutoring-“

“Don’t you dare-“

“What? No need for an anatomy lesson?”

“So help me God-“

“Practical biology is important.”

She clicked her tongue, smacking him on the arm. “I don’t know why I ever missed you!” she said, cheeks flushed, a laugh bubbling in her belly, and she stopped walking so she could turn her back to him in the empty hallway. The small smile on his face grew somewhat smug when he stepped forward, resting his chin atop her head. His arm came around her waist and she sighed, patting the back of his hand.

“Yes, you do,” he said, plainly.

She rolled her eyes upward as though she were going to catch a glimpse of him that way, or maybe she was just asking some deity why she ever decided that getting into a long distance relationship with her boyfriend from college, even with such a painful time difference, was anything close to a good idea.

“Oh, you be quiet,” she said, but wiggled backward as though to snuggle with him. All the students were in class or in the stairwell, anyway: places they’d be less likely to get caught skipping.

It was silent for a moment before she pulled away, turning around to face him and looking up.

“So. . .you have your own office?”

She was grinning.


End file.
